Swimming for Individuals with Intellectual Disability: A Integrative Review

Abstract

The benefits of swimming for the general public are largely described in the literature, but today the scientific evidence for these is still being challenged for people with disabilities, especially for people with intellectual disabilities. The objective of this study was to identify studies that address adapted swimming for people with intellectual disabilities and to discuss the main themes and results of studies in the area. This review was carried out through a search of articles published between 2005 and 2015, in the following electronic databases: PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science and Cochrane Library. The articles were selected according to the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, 17 publications were selected to compose this study. It was verified that the selected studies used swimming for this population with several purposes: as a means of promoting inclusion, a means to promote adapted swimming teaching techniques, high-performance sports and also as a means of intervention and research. We can conclude that swimming for people with intellectual disabilities is an area of ​​great interest, considering the diversity of themes addressed in the articles selected for this review. Being the thematic areas addressed        : rehabilitation, social inclusion, aspects of development, intervention and research and studies focusing on high income. All the studies presented point to a significant contribution of swimming to the health of people with intellectual disabilities